Sugar coated products and process for preparing the same

ABSTRACT

The Present invention pertains to improved sugar coated products having a hard coating of a fruity taste which products are prepared by applying a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol over the surface of an edible core material, wherein a layer of the hard coating contains an acid.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a novel sugar coated product wherein a hardcoating is applied to an edible core material and, more particularly, anovel sugar coated product wherein an edible core material is coatedwith a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol, as well as a processfor preparing the same.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Heretofore, there has been prepared a sugar coated product comprising anedible core material coated with a hard coating according to the processwherein an edible core material is charged into a rotary pan, anappropriate amount of a saccharide solution is added to the material,while rotating the rotary pan, the saccharide solution is uniformlyapplied over the surface of the edible core material to form asaccharide coating over said surface, moisture is evaporated from thecoating to form a crystalline saccharide layer and then this procedureis repeated until a sugar coated layer of the desired thickness isobtained.

As the saccharide materials which may be used for forming a hardcoating, sucrose has been most commonly employed and a variety ofsucrose-coated products have been commercialized. Of these coatedproducts, there may be typically mentioned those having a hard coatingwherein an edible core material with, for example, a mint-taste, afruity taste or a coffee-taste is coated by a hard coating usingsucrose.

However, when a fruity taste with both of a sweet taste and a sour tasteis expected from a sugar coated product wherein an edible core of fruitytaste is coated by a hard coating using sucrose as a saccharidematerial, the finished product has a drawback that a prolonged time isrequired for the edible core to dissolve in the mouth and thus thedesired fruty taste cannot be immediately felt. Thus, the finishedcoated product has not been quite satisfactory as a fruity sugar coatedproduct.

Then, it might have been conceived to prepare a saccharide solution byadding a sour agent to a saccharide solution for a hard coating and usethe resulting solution for a hard coating. However, it is known that,when a sour agent is added to sucrose, the sucrose is partly decomposedto glucose and fructose by an acid component in the sour agent, wherebyevaporation of moisture was remarkably retarded, and, in an extremecase, evaporation of moisture was made entirely infeasible, when a hardcoating is applied using the saccharide solution. Then, it has not yetbeen attempted to add a sour agent to a saccharide solution as depictedabove.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Kokai 7-67554 discloses a process forthe preparation of a sugar coated product using a soft coating, not ahard coating, by coating an edible core material with a powderysaccharide material together with a sour agent. However, this priorprocess is directed to a process for the preparation of a sugar coatedproduct by a soft coating and then it is essentially distinct from aprocess for the preparation of a sugar coated product by a hard coating.The sugar coated product thus prepared is lacking in crispness andbrittleness which the sugar coated product by a hard coating inherentlypossesses, while an amount of the sour agent to be added was only 0.006%by weight (0.01 part by weight in a sugar coated layer) in the finishedproduct obtained according to the Test Example of the said prior art andthen the said amount was simply of a negligible level without any needfor considering the decomposition of sucrose to glucose and fructose byan acid, this being the reason for avoiding a combined use of sucrosewith a sour agent as depicted above.

Further, there has been suggested a process for hard coating wherein asour agent is added in a larger amount than the usual one and sucrose ora sugar alcohol such as maltitol is used. However, quite similarly, afresh fruity taste could not be enjoyed immediately after eating and asour taste could be first felt only when the core part begins todissolve in the mouth, while the time required until an inherent fruitytaste was felt could not be essentially shortened.

Moreover, there is suggested, for example, in Japanese Patent Kokai6-292511 a process for the preparation of a sugar coated product with alow calorie value using a sugar alcohol instead of sucrose or the highcalorie sugar used as a material for forming a sugar coated layer, butit is the primary object envisaged in this prior art to provide a lowcalorie product without paying any attention to the taste of a sugarcoated product.

Accordingly, it has been desired to provide a sugar coated product whichcan be prepared by applying a hard coating to an edible core materialand have the inherent crispness and brittleness which a sugar coatedproduct prepared by a hard coating may have and can provide a sour tasteimmediately after eating, for instance, a sugar coated product with afresh fruity taste which may be enjoyed immediately after eating.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present inventors have made earnest studies to solve the aboveproblems and, as a result, found that an excellent hard coating on anedible core material can be obtained by a hard coating using as asaccharide material a sugar alcohol, instead of sucrose, having noreducing end-groups susceptible to decomposition by a sour agent, thatis to say, by a hard coating of an edible core material using asaccharide solution composed of a sugar alcohol and a sour agent, andthat the sugar coated product thus prepared may have similar crispnessand brittleness when eaten to those of the product prepared in the priorart by using sucrose as a saccharide material. This invention has beencompleted on the basis of the above findings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

More particularly, this invention is concerned with a sugar coatedproduct which comprises an edible core material, the surface of which iscoated with a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol, a layer of saidhard coating containing a sour agent.

According to one aspect of this invention, there is provided a sugarcoated product in which a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol isformed by applying a saccharide solution comprising a sugar alcohol anda sour agent over the surface of an edible core material.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided a sugarcoated product in which a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol isformed by applying a saccharide solution composed of a sugar alcoholalone and a solid sour agent or a solution containing a sour agentseparately and individually over the surface of an edible core material.

This invention is also concerned with a process for the preparation of asugar coated product having a coated layer containing a sour agent whichcomprises applying over the surface of an edible core material asaccharide solution prepared by adding a sour agent to a sugar alcoholand evaporating moisture and then repeating said steps of application ofthe saccharide solution and evaporation, thereby forming a hard coatingof saccharide layers.

Further, this invention is concerned with a process for the preparationof a sugar coated product having a coated layer containing a sour agentwhich comprises applying over the surface of an edible core material asaccharide solution prepared from a sugar alcohol and separatelyapplying to the surface of an edible core material a solid sour agent ora solution containing a sour agent and evaporating moisture and thenrepeating said steps of application of the saccharide solution andevaporation, thereby forming a hard coating of saccharide layers.

More specifically, according to an embodiment of this invention, thereis provided a sugar coated product which has a coated layer containing asour agent by applying a saccharide solution, which has been prepared byadding the sour agent to a sugar alcohol, over the surface of an ediblecore material, for example, in a rotary pan and evaporating moisture andthen repeating said steps of application of the saccharide solution andevaporation to form a hard coating of saccharide layers.

In another embodiment of this invention to incorporate a sour agent intoa hard coating, there is provided a sugar coated product which has acoated layer containing a sour agent by applying a saccharide solution,which has been prepared from a sugar alcohol, over the surface of anedible core material and separately applying a sour agent in the form ofa dry powder thereof or a solution containing said agent over thesurface of an edible core material, for example, in a rotary pan andevaporating moisture and then repeating said steps to form a hardcoating of saccharide layers.

More illustratively stated, 60-80 parts by weight of maltitol as a sugaralcohol is mixed with a sour agent, e.g., not more than 11 parts byweight of citric acid and the resulting mixture is made up to a totalamount of 100 parts by weight with water to form a saccharide solution,said solution is applied over the surface of an edible core material,e.g., in a rotary pan and moisture is evaporated and then saidprocedures are repeatedly carried out to form a hard coating over thesurface of the core material, whereby the desired sugar coated productis prepared.

According to another embodiment for practicing this invention, asaccharide solution is prepared by adding water to a sugar alcohol,e.g., 70-90 parts by weight of maltitol to make up to a total amount of100 parts by weight, said saccharide solution is applied over thesurface of an edible core material, e.g., in a rotary pan, and, duringthe subsequent step wherein moisture is evaporated, a sour agentseparately prepared, e.g., an amount of not more than 11 parts by weightof citric acid is added or a solution of said amount of citric aciddissolved in the minimum volume of water is added and then saidprocedures are repeatedly carried out to form a hard coating over thesurface of the core material, whereby the desired sugar coated productis prepared.

The sugar alcohol which may be used in this invention may include, forexample, maltitol, sorbitol, lactitol, xylitol, erythritol and reducingparatinose and maltitol is preferable as a saccharide material for ahard coating. Also, there may be used a combination of maltitol with oneor more of sugar alcohols selected from the group consisting ofsorbitol, lactitol, xylitol, erythritol and reducing paratinose.

The sour agent which may be used in this invention may be any of thoseacids commonly used as a sour agent such as citric acid, malic acid,tartaric acid, etc. alone or in any combination of two or more thereof.An amount of the sour agent to be added is usually in the range of0.9-5.0 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of a finished sugarcoated product. This range is believed to be practical one for fruityconfectionery products in the light of the fact that a sour agent hasbeen admixed typically in an amount of 0.5-2.0 parts by weight per 100parts by weight of a fruity confectionery product and, from thestandpoint of the amount to be added, this invention is also evidentlydistinguished from the range of the above Japanese Patent Kokai 7-67554.

The edible core material which may be used in this invention mayinclude, for example, a chewing gum, a soft candy, a hard candy, a gummycandy, a tablet candy and others. Needless to say, any other similarmaterials may also be coated with a hard coating according to thisinvention.

This invention will be more fully explained by way of the followingexamples and comparative examples.

EXAMPLE 1

Formulations (1) to (6) shown in the following Table 1 were preparedaccording to a conventional hard coating method. More specifically,water was added to 72 parts by weight of a powder form of each sugaralcohol as indicated below, 2 parts by weight of acacia and 2 parts byweight of citric acid to make up to a total amount of 100 parts byweight to prepare a saccharide solution. An aliquot of the saccharidesolution was added and mixed with core chewing gums in a rotary pan.When the chewing gums were uniformly coated over the surface thereofwith the saccharide solution, drying was initiated and, after completionof the drying, the saccharide solution was again added in the samemanner as described above, and this procedure was repeated until therewere provided 35 parts by weight of a hard coated layer to 65 parts byweight of the core chewing gum. At the end of this time, the finaldrying step was applied to finish the preparation.

TABLE 1 (unit: part by weight) Formulations (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)Chewing gum 65 65 65 65 65 65 Citric acid 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 Acacia0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 Maltitol 33.2 Sorbitol 33.2 Lactitol 33.2Xylitol 33.2 Erythritol 33.2 Reducing 33.2 paratinose Total 100.0 100.0100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 1

The following comparative formulation was prepared according to aconventional hard coating method. More specifically, water was added to72 parts by weight of sugar, 2 parts by weight of acacia and 2 parts byweight of citric acid to make up to a total amount of 100 parts byweight to obtain a saccharide solution. Thereafter, a hard coating wascarried out in a rotary pan in the same manner as described in Example1.

TABLE 2 (unit: part by weight) Comparative Formulation (1) Chewing gum65 Sugar 33.2 Citric acid 0.9 Acacia 0.9 Total 100.0

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 2

The following comparative formulations were prepared using the sameformulations as described in Example 1 except that citric acid wasomitted. More specifically, the same procedure as described in Example 1was used except that 74 parts by weight of each sugar alcohol and 2parts by weight of acacia were used.

TABLE 3 (unit: part by weight) Comparative Formulations (2) (3) (4) (5)(6) (7) Chewing gum 65 65 65 65 65 65 Acacia 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9Maltitol 34.1 Sorbitol 34.1 Lactitol 34.1 Xylitol 34.1 Erythritol 34.1Reducing 34.1 paratinose Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

The hard coated chewing gum prepared using the formulations as describedin Example 1 was obtained without any difference in the time requiredfor effecting all steps as compared with the hard coating shown inComparative Example 2 containing no citric acid, and a sour taste couldbe felt immediately after chewing, which is as contemplated in thisinvention.

On the other hand, the hard coated chewing gum prepared using theformulation as described in Comparative Example 1 required an extremelyprolonged period of time in the drying step due to a large amount ofcitric acid in the saccharide solution, and also produced an unevensurface because chewing gum grains were rubbed against each other whilemoistened, and any practical preparation of the hard coated chewing gumcould not be accomplished.

EXAMPLE 2

For studying the sort or type of sour agents, there were prepared thefollowing Formulations (7) to (9) as shown in Table 4 according to aconventional hard coating method. More specifically, water was added to72 parts by weight of maltitol, 2 parts by weight of acacia and 2 partsby weight of the indicated sour agent to make up to a total amount of100 parts by weight to prepare a saccharide solution. An aliquot of thesaccharide solution was added and mixed with core chewing gums in arotary pan. Thereafter the same procedure as described in Example 1 wasrepeated until there were provided 35 parts by weight of a hard coatedlayer to 65 parts by weight of the core chewing gum.

TABLE 4 (unit: part by weight) Formulations (7) (8) (9) Chewing gum 6565 65 Maltitol 33.2 33.2 33.2 Acacia 0.9 0.9 0.9 Citric acid 0.9Tartaric acid 0.9 Malic acid 0.9 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

The Formulations (7) to (9) were applicable for a hard coating and, inan organoleptic aspect, a sour taste could be felt immediately afterchewing, which is as contemplated in this invention.

EXAMPLE 3

For studying an amount of the sour agent to be added, the followingFormulations (10) and (11) were prepared in the same manner as describedin Example 1.

TABLE 5 (unit: part by weight) Formulations (10) (11) Chewing gum 65 65Maltitol 27.6 29.1 Acacia 0.9 0.9 Citric acid 2.5 5.0 Total 100.0 100.0

More specifically, to 68.55 parts by weight of maltitol was added 5.45parts by weight of citric acid and to 63.10 parts by weight of maltitolwas added 10.90 parts by weight of citric acid. To each mixture wasadded 2 parts by weight of acacia and then water was added to make up toa total amount of 100 parts by weight. The chewing gums prepared usingsaid Formulations required a more prolonged period of time for drying ascompared with those of Example 1, but they had the hard coated surfaceat the same level as in Example 1. In view of the results from Examples1 and 3, it is suggested that a sour agent may be added to all hardcoating layers or a sour agent may be added to a specific layer, bywhich a wide applicability of this invention could be confirmed.

EXAMPLE 4

In order to prove that this invention may be effectively applicable evenwhen an edible core material is other than a chewing gum, the followingFormulations according to this invention were prepared and tested.Coating was applied in the same manner as described in Example 1.

TABLE 6 (unit: part by weight) Formulations (12) (13) (14) (15)Strawberry-tasted hard candy 65 Strawberry-tasted soft candy 65Grapefruit-tasted gummy candy 65 Mint-tasted tablet candy 65 Maltitol33.2 33.2 33.2 33.2 Acacia 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 Citric acid 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

The hard coating of this invention could be prepared without anydifficulty by using any of the above core materials and, in anorganoleptic aspect, a sour taste could be felt immediately aftereating.

EXAMPLE 5

In order to study any other methods for incorporating a sour agent thanthe method for incorporating the agent into a saccharide solutionprepared from a sugar alcohol, chewing gums were prepared with theFormulation (11) as defined above except that the citric acid was usedin the form of a solid or a solution thereof according to a conventionalhard coating method.

More specifically, to 72 parts by weight of maltitol was added 2 partsby weight of acacia and a total amount was made up to 100 parts byweight with water. During the step wherein said saccharide solution wasapplied for a hard coating of chewing gums, the hard coating procedurewas repeated while 5 parts by weight of citric acid was applied directlyto the surface of chewing gums at any appropriate time, and thisprocedure was repeated until there were provided 35 parts by weight of ahard coated layer to 65 parts by weight of the core chewing gum. At theend of this time, the final drying step was applied to finish thepreparation.

Alternatively, 5 parts by weight of citric acid was dissolved in thesame amount of water to form an acid solution and the hard coatingprocedure was repeated while said acid solution was used at anyappropriate time in a hard coating with a saccharide solution composedof maltitol and acacia, whereby chewing gums were prepared.

The same level of the finished state of the product as shown in Example3 was observed in this Example even when such different methods forincorporating a sour agent were used. In other words, it has beenconfirmed that a sour agent may be incorporated directly into asaccharide solution or the agent may be used for a hard coating in theform of a solid or a solution thereof, separately and independently froma saccharide solution.

What is claimed is:
 1. A sugar coated product which comprises an edible core material, the surface of which is coated with a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol, a layer of said hard coating containing an acid selected from the group consisting of citric acid, malic acid and tartaric acid, or mixtures thereof, in an amount of 0.9 to 5.0 percent by weight of the sugar coated product.
 2. The sugar coated product as claimed in claim 1 wherein the hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol is formed by applying a saccharide solution, prepared by adding said acid agent to a sugar alcohol, over the surface of an edible core material.
 3. The sugar coated product as claimed in claim 1 wherein the hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol is formed by applying a saccharide solution, composed of a sugar alcohol alone, and said acid or a solution containing said acid separately and independently over the surface of the edible core material.
 4. The sugar coated product as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3 wherein said sugar alcohol is one or more of sugar alcohols selected from the group consisting of maltitol, sorbitol, lactitol, xylitol, erythritol and reducing paratinose.
 5. A process for the preparation of a sugar coated product containing an acid, selected from the group consisting of citric acid, malic acid and tartaric acid, or mixtures thereof, in an amount of 0.9 to 5.0 percent by weight of the sugar coated product, in a coated layer which comprises applying a saccharide solution, prepared by adding said acid to a sugar alcohol, over the surface of an edible core material and evaporating moisture and then repeating said steps of applying the saccharide solution and evaporating moisture to form a hard coating composed of saccharide layers.
 6. A process for the preparation of a sugar coated product containing an acid, selected from the group consisting of citric acid, malic acid and tartaric acid, or mixtures thereof, in an amount of 0.9 to 5.0 percent by weight of the sugar coated product, in a coated layer which comprises applying a saccharide solution, prepared from a sugar alcohol, over the surface of an edible core material and separately applying said acid or a solution containing said acid over the surface of the edible core material and evaporating moisture and then repeating said steps of applying the saccharide solution and evaporating moisture to form a hard coating composed of saccharide layers.
 7. A process for the preparation of a sugar coated product as claimed in claim 5 or 6 wherein said sugar alcohol is one or more of sugar alcohols selected from the group consisting of maltitol, sorbitol, lactitol, xylitol, erythritol and reducing paratinose. 